"GROUND ZERO MOSQUE"

The facts that occurred on September 11 took everyone by surprise. The world was surprised, shocked and horrified at what happened and obviously the most shocked ones were the Americans. So it is natural that in months following the attack many people developed a sort of revolt, anger and fear towards all Muslims, as they identified them all with terrorists, which is tremendously unfair.

What happened on that day influenced the way many Muslims lived afterwards. There are news of Muslim taxi drivers who stopped working at night because they feared that some extremists Americans might attack them, and punish them for what terrorists had done. Many Muslim kids were insulted in their schools, some teachers were dismissed from their posts and many other workers had to face some sort of discrimination at work. But as time went by the situation started to soften and life seemed to slowly come back to its track.....until the news came of the construction of a Mosque in Ground Zero!

When faced with the news Americans took sides: same were in favour and others against that project. This is not surprising!

The surprising thing is that at a certain point news was biased and the population was not correctly informed about the project. As we know politicians and the Media live or survive thanks the news.

In this case it became obvious that some politicians who had almost disappeared from the news world, such as Sarah Palin, took advantage of the situation and started making statements that were like gas thrown to fire and some people, who were not so well informed, immediately started to demonstrate against the so called Ground Zero Mosque.

The fact is that it is not a Mosque! It is a community centre which will be open to the public and that includes: a theatre, a basketball court, a swimming pool, a childcare area, an art studio, a performing arts centre, a 500-seat auditorium, a fitness centre, a bookstore, a culinary school, a food court, a memorial to the victims of the September 11 attacks and prayer space. This prayer space, which will accommodate 1000 to 2000 people, is the basis of all controversy.

The people who are in favour of the building of the community centre and its Mosque say that America was founded on the basis of freedom. Freedom of expression, freedom to choose any political party or religion, therefore fighting against this project means to fight the basic ideals of the country. Besides, the Human Rights also state that everyone is free to have his/her religious option and live peacefully with it anywhere in the world and should not be discriminated against because of it.

They even say it is hypocritical to deny or refuse the project because in the area of the Ground Zero is a restaurant run by a Muslim and nobody told him to leave. Of course people can say that a restaurant is not the same as a Mosque, but if the problem is possibility of reunions or meetings among Muslims, who might conspire against the USA, then it is obvious that these meetings can be held anywhere and a restaurant could be a great disguise, couldn’t it?

Another argument of the people in favour of the project is that Community centre is not to be built in the Ground Zero! That´s just bad news! The idea is to build it in an old factory, not far from the Ground Zero Mosque, but it is not in the Ground Zero!

However there are lots of people who are against this project.

They say that families and friends of those who were killed by the terrorist attack may feel offended as it is reminder of what happened to their loved ones. They ever say that a Muslim building in that area is kind of trophy the Islamises are holding enjoy to show their pride and power. The families of the victims of the attack say that the issue is not about freedom of religion; no, it´s about being sensitive and compassionate and no one should impose something that beings back such painful memories as most of them are still trying to overcome the trauma caused by their loss under such tragic circumstances.

Some also refer that it may be seen a sort of silent acceptance that the Americans can do nothing against the terrorists, cannot stop their acts against democracy. They fear that the Mosque may be a sort of recruitment centre of radical Islamists.

To sum up, I´d say there are lots of arguments in favour and lots of arguments against.

My perspective is that all of them should be taken into account, having in mind that we are dealing with people and feelings. If you ask me, I´d say don´t build the centre in that area, not because of anything else but the compassion towards those who might feel hurt by it.

In an ideal world these things would have never happened and if they did people would be “spiritual” enough to forgive and forget, but the truth is that our world is not an ideal one, yet!